Developer Diary: Focus on New Players

In our recent Developer Diary series, we’ve discussed the subjects of Ranked Battles, APS and smoke mechanics changes. While important, these changes usually only concern advanced players of Armored Warfare. At the same time, however, the game has plenty of new players coming to try it out every week.

We are, of course, interested in improving the experience for such players as much as we can, which is why we introduced and are still introducing changes to the content that usually gets accessed first. Today, we’d like to tell you more about them.

The most noticeable change is the way the low Tier matchmaking works. Simply put, Tier 1 and Tier 2 players will always be in one team together, fighting against a team consisting of entirely of AI opponents (also called “bots”). The player team will, if necessary, be also complemented by AI players.
This serves several purposes, but most importantly:

It prevents entirely new players to be preyed upon by old, skilled players playing low-Tier vehicles (this practice is commonly referred to as “seal-clubbing”)

It allows the new players to learn about the basics of Armored Warfare PvP safely and even though fighting against other players is a significant element of Armored Warfare, teaching players the basics is just as important

It allows for instant battles with practically zero waiting time

This change was actually introduced some weeks ago silently in order to evaluate its impact on the game. We are pleased to report that the test has been a success and we are making this change a permanent one. There are some minor considerations (such as the ability of players to nominally improve their PvP winrate statistics by fighting AI opponents instead of real players) but we will be addressing those separately. At the moment, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

Another program we’ve introduced some weeks ago helps new players get into the game by the means of a series of Game Launcher banners linking to Armored Warfare guides and teaching them the basics of Armored Warfare. There are four stages to this program that unlock as the players progress through the game and end with a special test quiz aimed at testing their knowledge. Completing the quiz successfully yields a small bonus reward.

Together, these changes are making it easier than ever to launch and truly get into Armored Warfare.